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On Gay Rights, Obama Has Built a Legacy

The executive order banning discrimination by federal contractors caps off a long list of things this White House has done to change life for LGBT Americans.

US President Barack Obama (C) after signing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 into law at the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC, on December 22, 2010. Obama Wednesday signed a law allowing gays to serve openly in the military, repealing the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy in a sweeping and historic shift for the US armed forces.

The politi­cian who op­posed gay mar­riage, was cau­tious on al­low­ing gays to serve openly in the mil­it­ary, and res­isted calls to ban fed­er­al con­tract­ors from dis­crim­in­at­ing on the basis of sexu­al ori­ent­a­tion has come a long way in six years. In­deed, he has be­come the pres­id­ent who has done more for gay people than any of his pre­de­cessors.

“The cycle of evol­u­tion has come full circle,” pro­claimed Richard So­car­ides, the New York law­yer who was Pres­id­ent Clin­ton’s top ad­viser on gay is­sues and re­mains deeply in­volved in is­sues im­port­ant to the LGBT com­munity. “The evol­u­tion is com­plete.”

So­car­ides has been a fre­quent vis­it­or to the White House for meet­ings on gay is­sues. Many of those ses­sions, he re­called, were “con­ten­tious.” At sev­er­al, Obama sided with the act­iv­ists on the mer­its of an is­sue but laid out a course that was much slower than they de­sired. On more than one oc­ca­sion, So­car­ides said, the pres­id­ent told them the story of Pres­id­ent Roosevelt’s meet­ing with labor lead­ers after his elec­tion in 1932. FDR told the uni­on lead­ers: “I agree with you; I want to do it; now, make me do it.”

“That’s how we kind of al­ways felt we had to deal with him,” said So­car­ides. “His heart has al­ways been with us, and his policy wonk side has al­ways been with us. But in terms of ac­tu­ally tak­ing steps to de­liv­er on the policy goals, we had to push him.”

For al­most all of Obama’s first term, there was great frus­tra­tion and even some an­ger at the White House’s re­fus­al to move more quickly on the LGBT agenda. In 2010, the Justice De­part­ment de­fen­ded the “don’t ask, don’t Ttll” policy in court, much to the chag­rin of act­iv­ists. That same year, Justice ap­pealed a fed­er­al court rul­ing in Bo­ston that had de­clared the De­fense of Mar­riage Act un­con­sti­tu­tion­al. When crit­ics ex­ploded in an­ger, the White House rather meekly in­sisted it wanted to stick with “the pro­cess.”

Fur­ther fuel­ing the frus­tra­tion, the pres­id­ent was stick­ing as well with the po­s­i­tion on mar­riage he had out­lined in 2004 when he said, “I’m a Chris­ti­an. I do be­lieve that tra­di­tion and my re­li­gious be­liefs say that mar­riage is something sanc­ti­fied between a man and a wo­man.” In an in­ter­view then, he in­sisted, “I don’t think mar­riage is a civil right.” That stand star­ted to crack in 2010 when he told ABC’s Jake Tap­per at a press con­fer­ence that his views on mar­riage were “con­stantly evolving. I struggle with this.” In 2011, he told ABC, “I’m still work­ing on it.” It wasn’t un­til 2012 that he used an­oth­er in­ter­view, this time with ABC’s Robin Roberts, to an­nounce his sup­port for gay mar­riage.

That pleased the act­iv­ists — and con­trib­uted to his reelec­tion by help­ing boost turnout of gay voters. But it did not lessen the pres­sure and the de­mands for the ex­ec­ut­ive or­der. “We were tough on our en­emies and tough­er on our friends,” So­car­ides said.

That in­cluded be­ing tough about the ex­ec­ut­ive or­der is­sued this week, something the pres­id­ent ini­tially res­isted be­cause he pre­ferred the pro­tec­tions be provided by Con­gress and not just for fed­er­al con­tract­ors. The Em­ploy­ment Non-Dis­crim­in­a­tion Act has passed the Sen­ate but pro­spects in the House seemed dis­mal, in­creas­ing the pres­sure on the White House to move ahead.

Now, with the an­nounce­ment that the pres­id­ent will sign the ex­ec­ut­ive or­der, he ar­rives in New York City for Tues­day night’s Demo­crat­ic Na­tion­al Com­mit­tee’s an­nu­al LGBT Gala as the toast of the com­munity.

As someone who pushed hard for pres­id­en­tial ac­tion, So­car­ides re­mains a little amazed at how far Obama has come since 2008. “This was far from in­ev­it­able,” he said. “But now it looks like his re­cord on gay rights will be one of his most im­port­ant and last­ing ac­com­plish­ments…. He has turned out to be the fierce ad­voc­ate he told us he wanted to be.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are threatening to block the spending bill—and prevent the Senate from leaving town—"because it would not extend benefits for retired coal miners for a year or pay for their pension plans. The current version of the bill would extend health benefits for four months. ... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday afternoon moved to end debate on the continuing resolution to fund the government through April 28. But unless Senate Democrats relent, that vote cannot be held until Saturday at 1 a.m. at the earliest, one hour after the current funding measure expires."

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PARLIAMENT VOTED 234-56

South Korean President Impeached

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

The South Korean parliament voted on Friday morning to impeach President Park Geun-hye over charges of corruption, claiming she allowed undue influence to a close confidante of hers. Ms. Park is now suspended as president for 180 days. South Korea's Constitutional Court will hear the case and decide whether to uphold or overturn the impeachment.

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CLOSED FOR INAUGURAL ACTIVITIES

NPS: Women’s March Can’t Use Lincoln Memorial

1 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Participants in the women's march on Washington the day after inauguration won't have access to the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service has "filed documents securing large swaths of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities. None of these spots will be open for protesters."

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2.1 PERCENT IN 2017

President Obama Boosts Civilian Federal Pay

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

President Obama on Thursday announced a pay raise for civilian federal employees of 2.1 percent come January 2017. He had said multiple times this year that salaries would go up 1.6 percent, so the Thursday announcement came as a surprise. The change was likely made to match the 2.1 percent increase in salary that members of the military will receive.

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SHUTDOWN LOOMING

House Approves Spending Bill

20 hours ago

BREAKING

The House has completed it's business for 2016 by passing a spending bill which will keep the government funded through April 28. The final vote tally was 326-96. The bill's standing in the Senate is a bit tenuous at the moment, as a trio of Democratic Senators have pledged to block the bill unless coal miners get a permanent extension on retirement and health benefits. The government runs out of money on Friday night.